State Street removed corporate board diversity requirements from its 2025 proxy voting guidelines in a Feb. 28 update.

Proxy voting refers to the process through which shareholders who do not physically attend corporate shareholder meetings vote on company issues such as executive pay packages, board membership, and other shareholder and management proposals. Typically, proxy voting occurs over the phone, by mail, or online.

State Street is the third Big Three passive asset manager (following BlackRock and Vanguard) to scale back diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) corporate voting policies this year. DEI is part of the social component of ESG.

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